Page 40 - Folk Boat Year Book 2023

But what about the sailing? Well, the islands are sometimes called “The islands of
perpetual Spring”, and where else in the world can you live without heating or air
conditioning? It is 24/365 T-shirt sailing, as our tides are a huge 1.2 metres at springs.
(After Swansea Bay and its 40ft tides this is unbelievable, and I still can’t get used to it
and my friends here cannot believe that sailing is really supportable in the Bristol
Channel). The sea temperature here is between 20 and 25 degrees Centigrade
throughout the year, and we get rain in February and November. Sounds idyllic, and
mostly it is.

But, (there’s always a “but”), the archipelago is sizeable, with its seven islands, but
they are not that close together, and so passage-making is a challenge. Hopping
across from Swansea to Ilfracombe or across the English Channel is not complicated,
but here it’s a long day’s sail between Tenerife and Gran Canaria and they’re the
closest, though from the south of Tenerife to little La Gomera is more of a short hop if
your marina is on the South coast. Also, there are no cosy bays to pop into. The
coasts here are mostly cliffs, and a friend of mine used to divide sailors into two
groups: those who sail among rocks and those who sail among sandbanks. The first
take no risks, whereas the second do, because a few hours stuck on sandbank are
neither here nor there. Here we do not take any risks, and also the Guardia Civil (in
their role a coastguards) do not like you anchoring offshore. I am not sure whether
this is to discourage smuggling, or as a safety precaution, but the effect is the same.
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